Hi Ya Smurf,

To book now for next May is IMO far too early, you do not say where you want to go and if no frills airlines go there, the cheaper flights are usually the key to value, so perhpas you might supply more information to be able to agree or disagree that DIY is more expensive.

Dave

Have to agree with david it is rather soon to look for May. BUT keep checking the airline sites on a regular basis and I am SURE the price will fall. CBG

Ive found diy to be more expensive this year at my expense lol. When wanting to book my holiday earlier on in the year package deals were far too expensive so booked diy now package holiday i wanted is now come down in price. Oh well we all learn by our mistakes happy hols every1

Just wanted to say that I disagree about DIY holidays being more expensive. Like most things in life, it is the early bird that catches the worm and we have just booked a week for May next year (half-term) in Majorca. For 4 people our flights have cost £474 and our AI hotel (2 rooms) has cost £740, we will also probably hire a car for the week which should be about £150 making the grand total £1364 which is a saving of approx £1000 on the brochure price.

Good luck in finding a bargain they are out there to be had.

That's a great price MrandMrsB - especially for half term! Well done!

I have just booked mine again for next year,Turkey again for 2 weeks in June,flight £136,apartment £100,transfer £10,total £246 each.Some package prices are double that,also we dont have to pay supplements for the 2 of us sharing an apartment,we stayed in the same apartments last month and they excellent,recieved gold medals from Thomsons every year.

hi crispy,

who did you book flights with?

Sha33a

Booked my flights with aegeanflights.

who did you book your appartment from where is it

To get cheap flights you do have to book very very early. or find out when they're first going to be listed. Easyjets summer ones come out later in the autumn so might be worth checking with them.

I can only speak for Turkey, havent been anywhere else for a few years. If flying to Turkey. Aegean flights came out in June 08 for summer 09 and the flights jump up very fast.

Aegean aren't anywhere near as cheap as they were last year I paid £96 each last june for our flight on 11 August 08 but when the new prices came out for 09 they started at £160ish so nearly double.

So have booked a low deposit hol package with jewell in the Crown, via Co-op travel agents, its worked out the nearly the same for me to do a package next year, but with advantage of low £10 deposit each. Which proved vital as was scraping spends together for this years hols.

Flights now with aegean are silly its around £370 each to fly in August from Mcr.

I think you have to do your research and pay your credit card off to be able to book the cheapo flights when you see them, which of course I didnt do. lol!

Bev

To get cheap flights you do have to book very very early.

It isn't always the case, for this years hols I booked flights in November last year with BMI. Got talking to a chap in the airport coming home who was on our flights and he'd booked his the following May and got them cheaper. I guess it's a case of if you're happy with the price book it.

I've worked a holiday out for next year and it would be a lot cheaper for us to do it DIY and the flights are actually coming up cheaper than what we paid this year so that's a bonus

I've found it usually a lot cheaper to do DIY but not always. I've had several package holidays in Spring and Autumn in recent years for silly low prices that I couldn't get anywhere near by booking the flights and accommodation separately. So the moral of the story is do the research, do the sums and have a great holiday whichever way works out cheapest !

i have just booked DIY flights and accomadation for next August going to Mallorca and to be honest with you the price we paid to go for 2 weeks this year on a package holiday is the same amount i have just paid to go for 3 weeks wiht some money left over so i would go DIY all the time from now on - this last holiday i listened to hubby and well we wont be doign the package deals agian as they dont work out cheaper

there are definatletly some good package deals to be had but i find we are always in a better standed of accomadation when we DIY, which we nearly always do. This year we paid 156 each for flights and £670 for a 2 bedroom luxury apartment with jacuzzi bath for 2 weeks 18 August till 1 September 2009, free transfers and a/c. We are a family, me MY husband 3 children and father in law. My father in law paid for his flight and £200 towards the apartment so that leaves us to pay £1250. I m very happy with this

You have to make a study of your destination, pricing up Hotels and comparing them with all providers, booking flights at a pre decided value price before you book the accomodation.

we are going to Madrid next weekend for five days and I have just priced it with a city break specialist at £891 for the two of us, we have paid £462 DIY the specialist offers transfers at £103 return not included the taxi fare is 60€ approx.

I think that the money saved will take care of our spenders.

Dave

£103 for a transfer? Classic example of a package rip-off. When my family came to visit me, I booked a transfer from the airport to Sol with AeroCity. It was about 40 euros return. If you want to take a taxi, make sure it's an official white one with a red stripe directly outside the terminal.

Madrid can be done very cheaply if you are willing to stay at a 'pension' (called hostel(es) in spain) and fly Easyjet.

Enjoy your stay in Madrid David, it's an amazing city. I'm going back on the 20th for a couple of days

My friends have told me the weather is a bit on and off, so you might want to pack a waterproof!

Thanks Switch for your good wishes, I have booked Aero City from the AP to H Room Mate Mario at 21€ each way, we will try very hard to enjoy Madrid.

Dave

Hello

i thought i could add my experience on booking DIY

for the past 5 years we have been booking DIY holidays 2 adults and 2 kids well one of them is now classed as an adult as he is 14 years of age, it normally costs me in the region of £350 for the apartment per week and then return flights from Palma mallorca to GAtwick from around £79 per person so roughly around £1,366 for us as a family for 3 weeks which is brilliant - this year as we couldnt find a reasonable apartment we decided to stay in a hotel and we did a package deal which worked out at £2,100 for 10 days which honestly hurt me as i thought that was loads alright we had 2 hotel rooms but thats beacuse 4 people in 1 room was just not reasonable not for 2 weeks at any rate

well for next year we are again going DIY so far i haev got my flights 99 return with British Airways gatwick to Mallorca and the aprtment is costing us £420 this year

if anyone else can find me a pakage deal for less than that for that amount of time then i will take my hat off for them

Hi wLondon, do you go peak time?